Tuesday, May 21, 2013

I try hard not to use my phone in the car. I used to talk on the phone all the time while driving and I've been able to cut back on that. I'm pretty good about not texting, though I will answer a text when I'm stopped at a red light. My phone doesn't have Siri, so I don't have one of those talk-to-text features. But it does have a voice search function.

I can hold down the home button on the phone and say "Call Annie, mobile," and it will, which is pretty sweet. I can also use the voice search function to search Google. That comes in handy from time to time. Like last week, for instance. I was on my way to the Indiana Soybean Alliance for a blogger's event. I had a pretty good idea of where I was going, but wanted to confirm the address. So I held down the button, waited for the beep and said in (what I thought was a very) clear voice:

"Indiana Soybean Alliance"

What I said and what Google Voice heard were two different things. What Google gave back to me was: "Indiana Sleeping Alliance." Not what I was looking for, but something I should keep in the back of my mind for future use.

So I tried it again, this time trying to be more clear with my enunciation: "Indiana Soybean Alliance"

Google Voice: "Indiana Floyd bean Alliance" Ugh. No.

Me: "Indi-ANa- SsssOY-beaN Alliance"

Google Voice: "Indiana silly bean Alliance"

Still determined, I decided to change the search a little, not sure if it was really the soybean alliance or the soybean board.

Me: "Indiana Soybean Board"

Google Voice: "Indiana saw you being bored"

Well, I don't know if anyone saw me being bored, but if they were looking in my direction, they probably saw me being frustrated and shouting into the pinhole microphone of my phone.

9
comments:

i just traded in for the iphone 5 on saturday. i really don't see myself using the voice commands at all. i don't have jeff programmed in my phone as jeff - i have him in as poo poo. that is the affectionate nickname i have for him and i am hot mama in his phone. try saying poo poo into a voice command and see what you get lol lol i tried it years ago when i had a blackberry and the phone just doesn't get it. and then you are saying P O O P O O over and over and over. lol lol the indiana saw you bored was my fave lol